About Me

I am a person with varied interests.
Music is my breath and though I like all kinds of music, I am enamoured of the variety and the depth of Indian Classical music.As far as Film music is concerned, I love Old songs and ILaiyaraaja-whom I consider as one of the best composers in the world- is my favourite composer.
I love travelling and meeting new people . A lover of nature, I prefer those long walks.

My Other Blog

Tuesday, 26 May 2015

ILaiyaraaja- The Ingenious Musician

They
are not mutually exclusive surely, but is it true that all creative people are inventive
as well?

Sometime
back, I described the differences between creativity
and innovation. Let us now see all
the three together.

Creativity is seeing
what everyone sees and thinking what no one else has thought
before. Invention is putting these thoughts into tangible ideas. Innovation is introducing these ideas to others by different means.

All
genuine artistes are creative. But are they inventive too? Isn’t inventiveness a trait of a select few?

Being
creative does not necessarily mean
being inventive or innovative. On the other hand, to be inventive or innovative, one necessarily has to be creative. A person having all the three in abundance is a great artiste. These three
in fact very well apply to management
as well and I used the word ‘artiste’
because management is an art.

Now,
having these in abundance is one
thing. But having these in equal
proportions (though these are not tangible and one cannot measure these) is the
mark of a genius. Not many can boast
of this though.

Bharati
was one such genius. If his poetic
ability came to him almost naturally, he had the uncanny knack of channelising it and also presenting it. To start with, he simplified poetic Tamizh so that even a commonman could understand it. Then, he composed poems in a wide variety of subjects presenting these
very differently and in the process
gave a new dimension to each and
every subject.

As
an example, let us take his ‘KaNNan
Paattu’. Until then, Aazhwars
have had treated KaNNan as their child, guru, lover and god. As ‘lover’ they considered KaNNan
as male only and they assumed the
role of a ‘nayika’(AandaL anyway was a girl but others
like Nammazhwar and Thirumangaiyaazhwar considered
themselves as a Heroine pining for
the Lord).

Bharati
considered KaNNan as his friend, his mother, his father, his servant, his king, his disciple, his guru, his child and his lover. The
last two mentioned needs special
attention. The child was a girl child –KaNNamma- and the ‘Lover’
was KaNNan first and then ‘KaNNamma’-the female version of KaNNan.

Now,
tell me if any poet had thought like
this before?

Not
only did he think differently but
also presented it differently and
beautifully.

I
am just giving a sample here - some lines from one his very popular KaNNamma poems:

வெண்ணிலவுநீஎனக்கு, மேவுகடல்நான்உனக்கு;

பண்ணுசுதிநீஎனக்கு,பாட்டினிமைநான்உனக்கு;

வீசுகமழ்நீஎனக்கு, விரியும்மலர்நான்உனக்கு;

பேசுபொருள்நீஎனக்கு, பேணும்மொழிநான்உனக்கு;

காத‌ல‌டிநீஎன‌க்கு, காந்த‌ம‌டிநான்உன‌க்கு;

வேதமடிநீஎனக்குவித்தையடிநான்உனக்கு;

‘You are my Moon, I am your Sea.

You are my Shruti, I am
your melody.

You are my fragrance, I am
your blossoming flower.

You are my speech, I am
your language.

You are my love, I am your
magnet.

You are my Vedas, I am your
art.’

Can
love get better than this? Can a poem be more beautiful than this?

I doubt!

We
have been seeing as to how another genius
by name ILaiyaraaja has been enthralling
us with his magnificent compositions that
shine with creativity, sparkle with inventiveness and smile with innovation. Like Bharati who simplified poetic Tamizh, ILaiyaraaja simplified classicalmusic so that it reached even the
common man. But it was done without in anyway compromising on the classicism or the quality of music. That is why, Tamizh
writer Jayakanthan, who passed
away recently remarked in his documentary
that ‘We all respect ILaiyaraaja because
he made classical music accessible to all. In a way, Raaja is a socialist’.

This
‘simplified music’ has a lot of complex intricacies too and that is
where the inventiveness and innovation come into play.

The
song of the day ‘Kalise
prati sandhyalo..’ from the Telugu
film ‘Aalapana’(1986) is another
perfect example. Based on the classical ragaMayamalavagowla, the composition n gives the essence of the raga and also shows its deep
beauteous shades in a matter of 4 andaquarter minutes. Apart
from inventing new designs in orchestration and presenting the designs innovatively, he has also played with
the Laya in his inimitable style
keeping the tradition alive.

The
composition starts directly without
a prelude and this itself has its
own attraction. The Pallavi is
beautifully structured with the coaxingly gentle voices of SPB and Janaki taking us
to a different plane. There are many significant features in the Pallavi itself.

1.
The Vocals sing the first phrase ‘kalise’
for one beat and then the instrument play for the next 3 beats. The next phrase ‘Prati
Sandhyalo’ is sung for 2
beats and this is again followed by the instrument.
That is, in the Adi taaLa cycle, ‘Kalise’
is sung in the first thattu in samam, ‘prati sandhyalo’ is sung
in the first veecchu. This happens
twice with the next phrases ‘kalige’ and ‘pulakintalo’ following
the same pattern. The lines that follow are sung continuously
up to the first veechchu (6 beats)
with the last veecchu being taken
over by the instruments.

2.
The instrument-Keys made to sound
almost like a Flute- that back the Vocals in the first four lines, go on the ascent (arohaNam) in the first instance
and then come down descending (avarohaNam)
in the next phrase. A very subtle Violin plays along with the Vocals in the next line ‘Naatyaalanni’
and a special sound from the Keys
touches some unique sancharas in Mayamalavagowla. All along, one hears a
constant bell sound too.

3.The
Mridangam that accompanies plays the
chatushram ‘ta ka dhi mi’ as ‘ta – dhi
mi’four times and a second Mridangam appears in the fourth ‘ta ka dhi mi’ sounding the ‘ta’ and ‘dhi’ only with a special resonant sound. The constant ‘Chaapu’ sound enhances the experience.

The
First Interlude begins and ends with
Laya Vinyasa, albeit with two totally different sets of patterns.

The
Mridangam and Tabla move with salutary greatness and go as 5, 5, 5,
3, 3, 6, 5 in the first aavartana
and then go as 5, 5, 5, 3 3, 6 in the
second aavartana. The last 5 is
played by the VeeNa and the Sitar. Innovatively inventive!

The
combination of VeeNa and the Sitar is another beauty here as both
weave tassels of swaras for the next
two aavartanas. The Flute takes over and plays with
felicitous fluidity for the next two aavartanas.The
Santoor intercepts after every 3 beats in the first cycle and the Sitar-VeeNa
combination intercepts at the same interval
in the next cycle. The beauty
here is that each time a different
set of swaras is played showing the
depth of creativity of the composer.

The
second part of the Laya Vinyaasa
follows now.

The
Mridangam first plays a yati. Yati is a structure with arrangement of aksharaas/syllables in a specific
pattern. Here it goes in the ascending
order as 4, 4, 5, 7. This yati is called as the Srotas Yati. It then follows 6, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5. A total of 64 in two cycles but following very different
patterns.

The
innovation continues in the CharaNam
though in a different way. The first
segment has Janaki singing the ‘akaaram’ for two beats after each line with each ‘akaaram’ being different.

In
the next segment, the Flute plays after each line-yet again
different sets of swaras.

One
hears the Mridangam alone in the next segment while the last segment has the akaaram alone- first by Janaki for half aavartana followed by SPB
and Janaki in the next half aavartana and need I say two different akaarams sung in perfect harmony?

The
Second Interlude sees some beautiful
harmonic progression. The VeeNa
first glides gracefully. The succulent Sitar
joins in the next aavartana. Even as
this is on, the Flute joins and
plays exactly the same swaras played
by the VeeNa. The Santoor joins after half-aavartana and plays the swaras played by the Sitar. Like a silent observer and a karma-yogi, the ankle-bell keeps backing all the instruments throughout the interlude.

A
collage of melody indeed!

The
VeeNa and Sitar continue to show the resplendent shades of the raga with vigour and vibrancy with the
immaculate Flute interjecting now
and then. Finally, the three join together, weave a small ‘teermaanam’ akin to the one done towards the end of a swara-singing segment in a Carnatic Music Concert.

Creativity,
Innovation and Inventiveness in abundance and in right proportions..drenching
us with classical melody.